How to Do On-Page SEO: A Step-by-Step Process

Step one: confirm the search intent

Search your target query and look at what ranks. Not the individual competitors — the page type.

• All guides? The query is informational; a service page will not rank.
• All service or product pages? It is commercial.
• A mix? There is room for either, and structure decides.
• Map pack present? Local intent — a location page is needed.

Note the People Also Ask questions while you are there. They are free research into what the answer must cover.

Step two: gather the sub-questions

A page ranks when it answers the whole question, including the parts the searcher has not articulated yet.

• People Also Ask boxes for the target query and close variants.
• Questions your sales or support team answers repeatedly.
• Search Console queries already producing impressions.
• Forum and community threads where the question is discussed honestly.
• What the current top results omit — often the most valuable gap.

Group these into five to nine sub-questions. Those become your subheadings, which means the outline writes itself.

Step three: write the direct answer first

Open with a clear, self-contained answer to the main question in two to four sentences.

This serves three audiences at once: the reader deciding whether to stay, the search engine assessing relevance, and any AI system looking for an extractable statement.

Example. Instead of "There are many factors that influence pricing", write "Most commercial cleaning contracts in the UK run between £15 and £25 per hour per operative, with frequency and access requirements accounting for most of the variation."

Step four: structure the body honestly

Each subheading should answer its own question completely enough to stand alone.

Avoid headings like "Overview" or "Final thoughts" for anything that could carry a real question instead.

Step five: add the specifics

Specifics are what separate a page worth ranking from a page that restates the obvious.

• Real numbers: prices, timescales, dimensions, ranges.
• Named processes and standards relevant to your field.
• Constraints and exceptions — when the advice does not apply.
• Worked examples drawn from actual work.
• Honest trade-offs, including where you are not the right choice.

These are also the sentences most likely to be quoted in an AI answer, because they contain something verifiable.

Step six: link internally

Links belong where a reader would naturally want more, and they should point somewhere genuinely relevant.

• Link to the commercial page the topic supports.
• Link to related guides that cover a sub-question in depth.
• Vary the anchor text across pages that link to the same destination.
• Place important links high in the page, not only in the conclusion.

Full guidance in the internal linking guide.

Step seven: final checks before publishing

• Title under 60 characters, leading with the search phrase.
• Meta description written for the click, under about 155 characters.
• One H1, phrased differently from the title.
• Every subheading answerable on its own.
• Images compressed with descriptive alt text.
• A clear next step for a reader who is convinced.
• No other page on the site targeting the same query.

That last check prevents the most common self-inflicted problem: two of your own pages competing.

How do you review a page after publishing?

Wait eight to twelve weeks, then read the query data rather than the rankings.

• Impressions with no clicks: the title is not earning attention.
• Clicks on unexpected queries: an opportunity to expand or split.
• No impressions at all: intent mismatch, or the page is not indexed.
• Impressions rising but position stuck: usually an authority gap.

Improving existing pages is usually better value than publishing new ones — see how to improve on-page SEO.

Frequently asked questions

The process in one line

Confirm intent, collect the real questions, answer the main one immediately, structure the rest honestly, and include specifics only you can provide.

Then link it properly and review it with query data after a quarter. That loop produces pages that keep improving.

The same page-level work feeds AI Overview optimisation, since assistants quote the clearest answer on the page. If you would like this done for your key pages, get in touch.